Final stretch

To say we are stressed would be a pretty big understatement right now.  Mark and I have been in the mad rush to get this house finished so we can list it May 1.  We only have a couple things to do yet and really one thing to do (baseboards) before I can take pictures of it for the listing.  We have one week to get it done, but looking around it seems like an almost impossible task.  I don’t know how I’m going to declutter this house enough to make it look decent in pictures, or where I’m going to find the time to shuffle everything from one room to the other while I take pictures without swings, and pack and plays, and high chairs and car seats and billions of toys, etc in them.  Just shuffling stuff to take pictures is going to take a solid day, especially if I have the “help” of the kids.  I’ve been paying a sitter to come 1-3 times a week to keep the babies entertained for a few hours a day so I can pack and clean and declutter.  We’ve already taken 3 trailers over to the storage shed, but it doesn’t even look like I’ve made a dent.  This is exhausting.  We were supposed to go to Disneyland this week but we decided to postpone that until after we have the house sold and more time on our hands.

So we’ve decided that once we sell the house we’re going to try to live in our 29’ travel trailer at the famcamp on base between when we close and when we move in early November.  I am already rather nervous about this because this 2700 sq ft house seems too small for all of us sometimes.  I’m not sure how we’re going to cram us with 4 kids into a tiny trailer for MONTHS.  I am not a minimalist and I like my space away from the kids.  When we are in the trailer we tiptoe to the bathroom in the middle of the night and we are confined to our “bedroom”, which is pretty much our bed with a foot on either side of it after we get them in their beds.  It’s going to be an adventure for sure.  And adding to my stress, my parents absolutely refuse to take our weina dogs for a few months while we live in the trailer.  They will take the huge 105lb Golden, but they “don’t like little dogs” and the weinas “won’t fit into their lifestyle”, so they are pretty much screwing us over big time.  I can’t stand their asshole dog either, but if they were having to live in a tiny travel trailer for a few months, we would suck it up and keep him if they asked.  And I would do that for any of my friends as well if I had the space for dogs.  I mean, when we lived in PHX I would watch friends dogs all the time.  It wasn’t for months, no, but I would have if they’d needed it.  My friend in Italy who had a 3 year old and no pets watched my dogs for a month while we were back in the US and I didn’t have to beg her.  It frustrates me that my parents think they’ve already “done their time” as they put it and it’s just way too much to ask them to keep my little dogs for a few months.  They would rather me send them to my friend in IA that has 2 dogs, 3 horses, a 3 year old and twin 5 month olds than keep them.  Apparently she hasn’t “done her time” yet and it would be much more of an inconvenience on my retired parents.  <Insert eye roll here>

And adding to my stress is that I will most likely home school Abbie and Ben for half of the year this coming school year.  I am not a “home schooler” by any stretch of the imagination.  Again, I like my time and space and if I can get my kids out of my hair for a few hours a day, I will.  But I don’t think it’s fair to them to put them in a new school on base in August, home school them Nov-Dec and then put them both into ANOTHER new school in January.  Its too much for one school year.

On top of it all I think I’m getting carpal tunnel or something.  My left wrist on the inside has been hurting or aching quite a bit.  I usually hold my phone with that hand when I’m feeding Josie, so I’m sure that doesn’t help.  Both of my arms/hands have been tingling and numb sometimes, and I think that’s because I have pinched nerves somewhere.  My knees ache every time I try to get up.  My arms and hands usually only fall asleep or tingle when I’m sitting in one place in for a while.  Hopefully it’s just pinched nerves and overuse and not something more serious.

I hope to God life calms down quite a bit after we get this house listed and sold, but when that happens we also get to move all of this into storage ourselves too because the military is fun like that….  So maybe not.

Josie at 4 months

This month was full of changes for you.  You have rolled belly to back quite a few times and you usually do it as soon as I put you on your belly, but then won’t do it again if I flip you back over.  You rolled off the couch once while I was sleeping and daddy and Abbie were watching you…. Yeah, I was real happy about that one… But you’re fine, thank God.  You try to sit up all the time and do your little crunches.  You don’t get very far, but you’re working on your core muscles a lot and you’re happiest when you’re sitting up.  You love to sit in the bumbo and we usually sit you in the middle of the kitchen table in it while we eat or prepare dinner and you just watch everything going on around you.

I had a major dip in supply early this month and it stressed me out a lot.  I want so bad to make it 6 months pumping for you – through cold and rsv season – but pumping is HARD!  You’d think finding 30-40mins per day would be easy, and if you were my only baby, it would be, but I have to schedule things around my morning pump session for you and I usually pump 10:15-10:30pm and sometimes I want to go to bed as soon as you do, but I can’t because that messes up my supply and I don’t get much out if I pump early.  And I’m only getting about 7-7.5oz out a day now anyway, where I was getting closer to 10.  It’s better than nothing, but it’s a pain.  When we were camping this month I took my pump and pumped in the car and then tiptoed around in the camper at night trying to pump and get the milk in the fridge without waking anyone up.  We are flying to NY this coming month and I’m not sure if I’m going to try to take my pump with me, but if I don’t, I won’t make it to 6 months….  I don’t know what to do.  And I’m sad that I never really got to nurse my last baby very much.  I seriously considered taking domperidone until I asked pharmacist friends about it and both said that side affects around worth the benefits, especially since you’re doing well on formula.  You seem to spit up a lot more with the breastmilk than you do with the formula too.  You usually eat at least 4oz at a time, sometimes up to 6oz.

You are starting to notice us eating and watch us closely.  I was going to wait until 6 months to start you on solids, but I might move that up a month or so.  Everyone else started around 4 months so we’ve already made it past them.  (You’re 4.5 months currently.)  You are starting to use your hands to bat at things and you hold your hands together and put them in your mouth too.  I’m not sure I’m ready to start you on solids, but if it helps you sleep more consistently through the night then I’m game.

Speaking of your sleep, a few nights you’ve teased us by sleeping 845-7am.  Once or twice you’ve slept 9-5/6 and eaten and gone back to bed until 830.  That was heavenly.  Normally you’re up 2-3 times during the night and then up for good between 6 and 7.  It’s fun… Not.  But you’re giving us more and more good nights.  The other night I got 7 hrs of continuous sleep and it was amazing.  That’s the most I’ve gotten in over 4 months!  Sometimes you’ll sleep on longer car rides although you’re still not a huge fan of the car seat.  I think you get hot.

You love watching everyone around you and are such a smiley little thing.  You fit perfectly into our family!